Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Driven by his Puritan Calvinist beliefs, Cromwell claimed a divine right to carry
out God's work as he saw it. To him, all Catholics were complicit in the Protestant
deaths by virtue of their misguided faith. He saw priests as little more than witch
doctors. Even Protestant Anglicans (the faith founded by Henry VIII a century be-
fore)werelookedonwithsuspicionas“Catholics withoutapope.”Cromwell'sself-
righteous army of 12,000 soldiers had God on their side and Ireland in their musket-
sights.
Cromwell and his tough New Model Army landed in Dublin on August 15, 1649
and marched north to the town of Drogheda. In a bloody siege lasting three days,
his soldiers massacred all 3,000 inhabitants. Cromwell then turned south to Wex-
ford, where his army again massacred 3,000-some civilians and Irish troops. Few
